King Center CEO Bernice King Releases Statement on Boston Bombings

Bernice A. King, chief executive officer of The King Center, made the following statement today about the bombings in Boston:

“I was shocked and saddened to learn of the bombings that have taken the lives of at least three people and injured at least 140 other people, including 8 children, in Boston. I ask everyone to pray for the victims of this violence and their families. We also pray for the day when these senseless acts of hatred and animosity will be a thing of the past. Although we don’t yet know who was responsible for this latest act of brutality, all Americans must join together in condemning the epidemic violence that has caused so much pain and suffering. We must work together with ever-increasing resolve to eliminate the sick culture of violence and to create a nonviolent society where all people can live together as sisters and brothers in peace and security.”

The latest news on the blasts, according to CNN, is that the bombings have injured 176, 17 critically. Motive remains unclear in the bombings, but uthorities will go to “ends of the earth” to identify those responsible, FBI agent says. An 8-year-old boy is among those who have been pronounced dead from the attack so far.

Although most of the 44 Boston Marathon bombing patients treated at two Brigham and Women’s Hospital facilities appear to have been wounded by “ordinary debris,” three were injured by “perfectly round objects” that were “a little bigger than a BB … very uniform, consistent, metallic,” said Ron Walls, chair of emergency medicine at the hospital. Another patient was injured with more than 12 carpenter-type nails, he said. “There is no question some of these objects were implanted in the device for the purpose of being exploded forward,” Wall said.